1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic timepiece assembly and more particularly to an electrical connection construction interposed between a module of an electronic timepiece provided with an exteriorly operable switch and an exteriorly operable member.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional electronic timepiece provided with an exteriorly operable switch, a contact pattern is formed on that portion of the upper surface of a module which is located directly below a push button. As a result, when the push button is pushed down, an electrically conductive rubber causes the contact pattern formed on the upper surface of the module to conduct current. As a result, if a large number of push buttons are used for a timepiece having a calculation ability, for example, the upper surface of the module takes up much space in proportion to the number of the push buttons and hence the module is required to be large in size. As a result, a timepiece case for enclosing the large module becomes large in size. In addition, if use is made of a round shaped module, it is impossible to arrange a number of push buttons within the circumference of the round shaped module. Particularly, if the push buttons are arranged in a square shape, a display portion becomes extremely small and hence the module must be made different in shape. As a result, the module working cost becomes high. The conventional construction as described above has the disadvantage that the construction is considerably restricted in design.
In addition, the electronic wrist timepiece has not only a time display ability but also several kinds of abilities such as alarm, stop watch, data display or the like and is provided with several operation buttons for the purpose of selecting these abilities.
These operation buttons are usually composed of independent push buttons and assembled together in a button box mounted on the upper surface of a wrist timepiece case in order to make beautiful in design and reliable in operation.
But, in the push buttons constructed as above described, the top portions of the push buttons are projected upwardly from the button box and the push buttons are operated in up and down directions. As a result, there is a risk of the push buttons being pushed down by accident when the wrist timepiece is used, thereby inducing an erroneous operation. Among the above mentioned several kinds of abilities, the ability of determining the alarm time requires to indicate one point of continuous numerical values, which could not be obtained by ON.OFF operation of the push button.
In addition, in the timepiece having the alarm ability, the timepiece case is provided in its rear cover with sound emitting holes and an alarm oscillation plate is located closely adjacent to the inside of the rear cover. As a result, the timepiece case is required to define a space for enclosing the alarm oscillation plate, whereby the case becomes large in thickness. In addition, when the timepiece is mounted on the user's wrist, the alarm sound is omitted from the rear surface of the case and the sound is filled in a gap formed between the user's wrist and the rear surface of the case, thereby changing the sound into an unpleasant sound.